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Friday 26 October 2018 | Dr Paul Hine

Not For Ourselves Alone

At the School Assembly this morning, College Captain Louis Callahan announced the student motto for 2019 – ‘not for ourselves alone’. The origin of this phrase dates back to Cicero’s most influential philosophical work – On Duties. In full, Cicero wrote, ‘non nobis solum nati sumus ortusque nostri partem patria vindicat, partem amici’ (‘not for us alone are we born; our country, our friends, have a share in us’).

What a week! From the incredible excitement of the game against Saint Joseph’s College to the craftsmanship of the works on display in the TAS show to the investiture of the new proctors at Mass on Sunday to the generosity displayed by our community for those being tested by the drought to the Year 12s beginning their trials, there is so much going on, it’s hard to keep up. But even in the diversity and busy-ness of all this activity, there’s a theme that keeps shining through to me: Generosity.

Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview initiated the Friends Listen Assembly in 2015, in a call to be ‘men for others’. This senior school assembly speaks to cura personalis – where we show care for each and every student, at the deepest and most intimate of levels.

I was out in Bathurst for our first visit to the country this year and I had a chance to hear from a (very) Old Boy about a saint – Mrs. York, of York’s Corner fame. He told me that during his day, the food in the refectory… left something to be desired. Namely, edibility. He said that in their desperation, the boarders would travel all the way to York’s Corner with their meagre monies in hand hoping for something that would fill their bellies.

This week I was in Melbourne for a meeting of Directors of Advancement from the Jesuit schools. We talked about the spiritual dimension of fundraising and how central giving was to Saint Ignatius, our patron and the founder of the Jesuits. For a large part of his life, Ignatius was radically dependent on God to provide everything he needed: money for studies, books, a place to live, food, clothing; you name it, Ignatius had to beg for it.

As the curtain call for 2017 beckons, there is so very much to be thankful for. In each domain of school life there has been so much endeavour, so much achievement and so much reward. The end of year is a time of reckoning when one looks back, and in the best of the Ignatian tradition, enters a period of discernment...